THE MISSING PIECE

I bet you thought they couldn't do it! After the overtly dense and frankly inaccessible Interview album Gentle Giant had a radical rethink for the follow up album The Missing Piece.The most obvious change was to ditch the complex-for-the-sake-of-being-complex polyrhythms which were such an essential ingredient.Also the album is less overtly experimental.In other words they basically decided to streamline and simplify their sound while staying true to themselves.The major Prog bands in particular Genesis, Yes and ELP were doing the same thing essentially but I actually think The Missing Piece works really well as a lighter Prog album than those group's efforts.

A lot of fans seem horrified by the sudden change in approach probably best exemplified by the opening track "Two Weeks In Spain".I really like that song- it is extremely catchy and if you bother to listen closely there are some very involved musical passages."Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It" is obviously a tongue in cheek (or maybe not according to Ray Shulman") riposte to the punk rock movement which was in full swing when the album was being recorded.If nothing this brief (all 2 min 20sec of it) track proves is that the band could rock like bastards when it suited them.

If the first side comprises fairly short songs the second side reflects their more overtly progressive routes.I have always loved the side 2 opener- "As Old As You're Young"- it has that cod medieval flavour which is so typical of their sound."Memories of Old Days" is an absolutely gorgeous acoustic number with some mesmerising guitar work.The closing track "For Nobody" is an absolute cracker- a full tilt hard prog rocker with some great instrumental interplay. It is in my top 10 Gentle Giant songs.

The Missing Piece is an immensely enjoyable album and I would recommend it for anyone interested in investigating their catalogue.